Make global green fund operational
Countries like Bangladesh and India must endeavour to make the global green fund operational at the ensuing Durban summit to combat climate change impacts, said eminent environmentalists at an international workshop in New Delhi yesterday.
Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) organised the two-day South Asian Media Workshop on Climate Change at India Habitat Centre, participated by journalists from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan.
South Asian countries, most vulnerable to climate change disasters, must strive to get a legally-binding instrument, said RR Rashmi, joint secretary of Union Ministry of Environment and Forests of India.
This instrument should ensure the drastic reduction in carbon emission by the developed world to let the developing countries economically grow on fossil fuel, he said.
Nothing moved in two years towards releasing the US $30 billon fast-start fund and the US $100 billion long term fund by 2020, though pledged by the parties present in the Copenhagen conference, he said.
The attempt by the developed world to levy tax on the international civil aviation and maritime organisations for carbon emission to generate the green fund is not acceptable. This will imply gathering resource from the developing countries and giving it back to them in the name of climate fund, he said.
The speakers decried the politics of misleading numbers on the rate of carbon emission by the developed world and their historic responsibility to reduce emission compared to pre-industrial era, as it undermines the developing countries' right to economic development.
“It is a shameful politics of the developed countries. It is apprehended that Durban summit too is going to face the same,” said Sunita Narayan, CSE director general.
As climate change is about economic development, it is the right of the developing countries to grow with the climate fund and technology, she said.
Countries like those of the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and Japan, the world's major emitters, required to reduce carbon emission below the pre-industrial era level and in 2005 and 2009 as per the Kyoto Protocol, contrarily increased it, she said.
The G-77 and China, as a grouping of the developing countries, must stick to the principle of common but differentiated responsibility of carbon reduction, the second commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, said speakers.
They must also press for the implementation of the Cancun agreements in the upcoming negotiation, they said.
Replying to a question from The Daily Star, Rashmi said the Brazil, South Africa, India and China grouping in the climate negotiation would not harm the developing world's stance, but it should not turn into a privileged club.
India is to pursue the principle of developing countries' equitable development, technology transfer and unilateral trade measures in the climate negotiation.
Comments